Responsible Research and Innovation in Practice: Development of Sustainable Productive Catalytic Living Materials

Description

INTRODUCTION: Transitioning to bio-based chemical production demands not only technological innovation but also systemic inclusion of responsibility towards society and the environment. Catalytic living materials, developed in the M-ERA.NET LivMat project, are a promising platform cultivating AI-guided microbial consortia within 3D porous structures for CO₂ sequestration and sustainable synthesis of bio-monomers like ε-caprolactone or adipic acid. While this technology has the power to create notable change, we must consider both positive and negative potential consequences and establish integrative practices to address society's concerns, needs, and long-term sustainability goals within research.
METHODS: We present an approach to guided implementation of the Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI) principles adapted for a biotechnology research project. Building on the Societal Readiness Thinking Tool [1], the approach combines internal reflection through a sequence of thematic questionnaires with external dialogue facilitated by a dedicated stakeholder RRI board, including industry, academy, and policy representatives.
This dual process is developed to facilitate systematic reflection and proactive action across five key RRI dimensions - ethics, gender, science education, open science, and public engagement.
RESULTS: This framework is expected to provide the project team with valuable practices that directly inform and improve their research. The resulting insights may lead to the adoption of new protocols for transparent data management, ethical standards, and research quality, while enabling the early recognition of socio-economic impacts of gender-related gaps and public perception.
DISCUSSION & CONCLUSIONS: By integrating RRI systematically rather than ad hoc, this approach offers a transferable model for responsible innovation in multidisciplinary biotechnology projects. The inclusion of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and absolute environmental sustainability assessment against the Planetary Boundaries will further ensure a development that is responsible, transparent, and environmentally sustainable. Overall, this framework provides researchers with a practical toolset to proactively anticipate societal impacts, align technology pathways with sustainability goals, and increase public trust in emerging biotechnologies.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS: This research is funded by the Latvian State Budget (Latvian Council of Science) in the frame of M-ERA.NET project "Productive catalytic living materials: combining 3D biobased fibrillar membranes with synthetic microbial consortia to produce chemicals (LIVMAT)", grant number ES RTD/2024/27.

Period	16 Oct 2025 → 17 Oct 2025
Event title	66th International Scientific Conference of RTU
Event type	Conference
Conference number	66
Location	Riga, LatviaShow on map
Degree of Recognition	International